Joscho's Gypsy Guitar Academy?

daniel108

Hi all, has anyone had any experience with Joscho Stephan's Gypsy Guitar Academy online courses?

I'm thinking of joining up but haven't found any reviews of it. I'd love to hear about people's experience with it.

I'm quite a beginner - I play gypsy picking, arps and triads and a couple of licks here and there.

Jim Kaznosky

Hi Daniel,

I tried it for three months. It is a variation on a theme where Joscho shows the user the chords and melody to a song and then presents a solo, which he breaks down into chunks. It is a little more advanced than something Robin Nolan might offer. The idea would be you learn a solo or set of licks and then find similar chord changes to place these licks over.
Places like these would be good if you have trouble figuring out solos for yourself, specficially with choosing the right fingerings that work out with rest stroke picking. With any of these places, you get the most benefits out of these if you stick with a solo until you know it cold.
There's a little more to it than that, but this is the basic theme of this academy.

daniel108

Thanks for the input Jim. It's sounds like it's definitely worth a shot. I haven't tried Robin's course but from the trailer Joscho's course looks like is produced to high quality.

Scoredog

I have not spent much time with Joscho's site but I think the biggest advantage to his material would be his fingerings as he has great technique. That could be a game changer for some.

canvas

Joschos website is very good indeed. You can choose from a lot of nice songs wich are seperated in theme, solo, chords and so on. The PDFs are very nice and in very good quality. The level is for all players in the gypsystyle. The soundexamples are very good too and the solos are typical Joscho.

Dirk

Buco

He seems so painstakingly methodical in his playing, that's​ gotta reflect on his online school as well.
But I do think his school is geared towards intermediate players and up. I only say that because a big chunk of the lessons are the solos which he breaks down into chunks which are then analyzed. If you're a beginner at guitar that may be overwhelming at first. The parts you'd benefit from regardless of your level are learning melodies to songs and of course chords​. Then he also has a lesson on basic techniques as well. And you could learn solos too regardless of level if you slow them down enough, maybe instead of the whole solo lesson just take a section you like and learn that.

daniel108

On my part I don't find the chords such a big issue. I can make do with a chord chart, throw in the 6's and 7's and make a few m7b5 substitutions by myself. That said, I don't have much knowledge of chord voicing so that could be really useful if he gets into it.

Actually left hand fingering and good technique is one of the reasons I'm interested in his site. I'm a firm believer in setting strong foundations and I like his technical but progressive approach.

I bought Gonzalo's How I Learned and have so far learned a couple of the solos from there. From what you guys say, Joscho's site sounds mostly like the same style as that PDF but with video, chord and melody.

To me it seems that what might be lacking is some guidance on technical exercises for improving arpeggios and scales.

Maybe it would be more productive to find a Skype teacher?

DragonPL

I had Joschos Academy as well as Rosenberg Academy. On most part Joschos stuff seems really simplified for his lessons. The lesson solos don't include any of the crazy Joscho-isms he's know for. There were only about one or two solos which included a lick one would have to practice for sometime. On most part they're designed for beginner's and intermediate players. The few "advanced" solos there are somewhat the usual Joscho licks solo, just slowed way down in his full performance demo.
What I didn't like are the explanation portions because he just talkes through every movement with the fretting fingerings which for me just takes to long, rather than him showing a lick or phrase in it's entity and play it slowed down, like the Dennis Chang videos.

On this aspect I liked the Rosenberg Academy better, because Stochello doesn't hold back on his performances there, and they are slowed down and broken up into phrases, so you can play them, as it were, in context and at the same time you can see what fingerings he's using, as also they are written down in accompanying tabs.

Having said that, I did learn a few licks and ideas from Joschos site.

Shemi

I've just signed up and am quite happy with it. I've only had an hour or so looking through but enough time to learn the solo for Bossa Dorado. I quite like the fact that the shorter solos, which are only a couple if pages, so each solo is easily digestible and you're not overloaded by too many possibilities which can be a good thing. It really gives you all the elements you need to learn a song.

I really liked the theory explanations in the pdfs on the Rosenberg academy as they offer some useful thoughts that you can instantly apply to your improv. So far, this seems to be lacking on Joscho's site as far as I can see. The pdfs seem good quality if not maybe 100% accurate like they are with Denis' stuff.

I got a lot from the Rosenberg site, and I think I'm going to find different take aways from Joscho's.

Cbacba

I wanted to try Joscho's guitar course because he is an excellent guitarist. The course has not convinced me because there is no good method or a good guide. You have not resources for learning instead the videos. There are a lot of videos but in YouTube there are also for free. I was expecting more. A good method step by step and not just a lot of videos not well classified. This course doesn't contain special or exclusive information. Everything you can find it in YouTube. But is not well organized or has a good method neither.

Twang

I have got a lot out of Joscho’s course. I disagree that it’s all for beginners and it’s chock full of usable, memorable licks. Just remember to download everything before your subscription expires.

I also think yaakov Hoeter’s courses are probably the best for beginners.